Essays in Life and Eternity

EESSSSAAYYSS IINN LLIIFFEE AANNDD EETTEERRNNIITTYY by Swami Krishnananda The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India (Internet Edition: For free distribution only) Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org CONTENTS Preface 4 Introduction 5 Part I – Metaphysical Foundations 11 I - The Absolute And The Relative 11 II - The Universal And The Particular 13 III - The Cosmological Descent 15 IV - The Gods And The Celestial Heaven 17 V - The Human Individual 19 VI - The Evolution Of Consciousness 21 VII - The Epistemological Predicament 23 VIII - The World Of Science 25 IX - Psychology And Psychoanalysis 28 X - Aesthetics And The Field Of Beauty 31 Part II - The Social Scene 33 XI - The Phenomenon Of Society 33 XII - Axiology: The Aims Of Existence 35 XIII - The Nomative Features Of Ethics And Morality 37 XIV - Civic And Social Duty 40 XV - The Economy Of Life 43 XVI - Political Science And Administration 45 XVII - The Process Of History 48 XVIII - Education And Culture 51 Part III - The Development Of Religious Consciousness 54 XIX - The Inklings And Stages Of A Higher Presence 54 XX - The Exploration Of Reality 57 XXI - The Epics And Puranas 60 XXII - The Role Of Mythology In Religion 63 XXIII - The Ecstasy Of God-Love 65 XXIV - The Agama Sastra 67 XXV - Tantra Sadhana 69 XXVI - The Yoga-Vasishtha 72 Essays inin LifeLife andand EternityEternity by by Swami Swami Krishnananda Krishnananda 21 XXVII - Philosophical Proofs For The Existence Of God 75 XXVIII - Empirical Systems Of Philosophy 77 XXIX - The Mimamsa Doctrine Of Works 80 XXX - The Gospel Of The Bhagavad Gita 82 XXXI - The Path Of Divine Devotion 84 XXXII - The Integral Philosophy Of The Vedanta 88 XXXIII - Fundamentals Of The Spiritual Ascent 91 XXXIV - The Art Of Meditation 94 XXXV - The Recession Of Effects To Causes 97 XXXVI - Experiences In Meditation 99 XXXVII - The Yoga System Of Patanjali 101 XXXVIII - Life After Death 104 XXXIX - Moksha: The Final Liberation 107 Part IV - Regarding Justice, Judgment And Human Solidarity 110 XL - On The Concept Of Righteousness And Justice 110 XLI - In Defence Of A Proper Philosophical Analysis 123 XLII- Creation And Some Of Its Implications 128 XLIII - Concerning Inter-Philosophical Dialogue And International Understanding 133 Essays inin LifeLife andand EternityEternity by by Swami Swami Krishnananda Krishnananda 23 PREFACE The publication of Essays in Life and Eternity by the well known author who needs no introduction is a veritable hallmark stamped on the various writings come from the same source dealing with such themes of study and enquiry as perhaps do not leave anything pertaining to human life unsaid or unexplained. The value of this new treatise can be assessed only by an actual reading of it with the requisite concentration. The subject of the thesis has been arranged systematically in an order of ascent and relatedness comparable with the order of the manifestation of life as could be gathered through an investigation of the structure of Nature and the obvious processes of the universe. Here is something absorbing which seeks to fulfil the longings of both the individual in society and the spirit that is eternal. THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY Shivanandanagar, 31st December, 1989. Essays inin LifeLife andand EternityEternity by by Swami Swami Krishnananda Krishnananda 43 INTRODUCTION This is an attempt to present in a sequential order certain ideas that may be said to appertain to an outlook of life which would adequately comprehend within itself the process of the envisagement of values that are supposed to form the structure of the general pattern of our existence. It is fairly obvious that we do not start thinking without a basis on which it has to found itself, an acceptance of what may be called indubitable and certain for all practical purposes. Usually, such a sheet-anchor of human enterprise goes by the name of a philosophy of life, a general concept of what things are, or what they ought to be, in the scheme of the universe. Not only do we not think in a vacuum and do have some substantiating factor remaining always there at the back of thoughts and actions, but also we conduct our life processes from what is considered as more primary and unavoidable to what is secondary or what follows from the original requirement as a corollary from a theorem. Effects follow causes, even as causes precede effects. While the effects are important enough to require necessary consideration, the causes have a precedence and determine all such considerations. The effects are often the visible and tangible things; the causes are not always direct objects of perception. It is common knowledge that we occupy ourselves principally with visible phenomena, inasmuch as the immediate impact of the world is on our sensations, and even our thoughts seem to become operative after the senses receive impressions of things outside as cast in the moulds of their own individual areas of organisation. Rarely do we think before we see or hear; we seem to be mentally active after sensations stimulate psychic functions. This is an aspect of our life which has been excessively taken advantage of by the empiricist schools of philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics and politics, though it, indeed, remains as a valid segment of the way in which we acquire knowledge. There is, however, the other side of the story, namely, that knowledge is not a mere unsolicited import from a foreign land, and that there is an inner need that decides the nature of the product arising as the outcome of sense impressions. But the vehemence of sensory activity is often so impetuous and aggressive that there is mostly an acquiescence on the part of everyone in the belief that events take place only in the ‘outer’ world and human history is caused by the behaviour of ‘other’ people. That there has been latterly a gradual trend of thought along these lines in modern times does not need an explanation. Only it would show that humanity is drifting downwards into the more exteriorised, mechanised and devitalised forms of existence than what should be expected from an essentially self-conscious human individual whose very self cannot be other than an indivisible consciousness, a fact which all types of empiricism seem to be ignoring entirely. The rationalist emphasis, too, may not always be able to avoid the erroneous judgment of confining consciousness merely to intellectual activity, not paying sufficient attention to the nature of reality which sweeps over a much larger area than logic and reason. The arrangement of thought in these essays can be viewed either from the point of view of the cause manifesting itself as its natural effects, or the effect evolving gradually into the substance of the cause. Perhaps the former impression may be created in the mind of a reader when the book is studied from the beginning to the end in the order of succession, and it may have the feature of the latter if the chapters are read in the reverse order especially from Chapter XVIII backwards, concluding with the themes of Essays inin LifeLife andand EternityEternity by by Swami Swami Krishnananda Krishnananda 45 the initial chapters. Though the presentation has endeavoured to touch the furthermost and a kind of superlative externalisation of aims and values as one could see in the present-day world, such as the thoroughgoing artificial organisations of life as pure political expediency and involvement in a thoroughgoing visage of man’s dependence on material and economic phenomena, the thesis, in its vision of the origin of things, does not start with any difficult assumptions such as what may be regarded as the logical grounding of the very way of thinking and the rationalistic foundation of any view of life, notwithstanding that a view of life which should reasonably be considered as acceptable on universal foundations has been portrayed in the essays in as much clarity and detail as could be possible. The position adopted is somewhat like the epic style of introducing the mind to what it may be able to receive even at the outset as something not only interesting but even exciting. The wonder of creation is what generally stimulates the highest possible reaches of thought and feeling. The ‘objective’ universe, remaining, nevertheless, as a universal inclusiveness, encounters us as an intelligent and purposive operation motivated by a central aim arising from the very heart of all things. Such a fundamental essence has been called God in theological terms, as the Absolute in philosophy, as the very Substance that transcends even space and time. The manner in which the universal scheme presents itself to human understanding is the cosmology of creation, through which process the One becomes the many, and the indivisible reveals itself as the manifold variety. Yet, in all this multifariousness, there is the undying immanence of that unitary principle which holds together the infinite parts of creation in a single grasp of eternal cohesiveness. This pervading influence through the manifold is the manifestation of the well-known gods of religion, the divinities in heaven, the angels that see things from the high skies. The space-time complex, the electromagnetic background of matter, and the very substance of physicality are the components of creation. The dramatic picture of life rises into the perceptive process when perception itself is not accountable without the perceiver being in a way segregated from the perceived world. The entire astronomical universe as viewed by the astronomer looks like an outside something, though the astronomer himself could not exist without his being substantially involved in the organism of the universe. The structure of the psyche in the individual of any species seems to be so oriented that the individualised mind in any of its stages of development cannot but assume the externality of the world and arrogate to its own self a subjectivity and conscious independence which it denies to the world of perception.

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